Figure 3

The gating strategy used to identify the different immune cell populations. Isolated cells from blood and endocervix were first gated based on forward scatter and side scatter. T cells were then identified based on CD3 positivity and NK cells were identified based on CD3^-CD56⁺ profile. From the T cell CD3⁺ gate, CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells were delineated. Following immune cell identification, perforin and granzyme expression were assessed.